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Institute for Global Sustainable Development

Professor Elena Korosteleva

Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development

 elena.korosteleva@warwick.ac.uk

  R2.12, Ramphal Building, School of Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL

Curriculum Vitae



Biography

Elena Korosteleva is Professor of Politics and Global Sustainable Development, and Director of the Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD). In 2024 Elena was appointed Chair for the Sustainability Spotlight Initiative (SSI), Warwick-wide interdisciplinary research-focussed network to address planetary challenges collectively; and in July 2024 she became a member of the Scientific Council for COP29. Elena is also a Visiting Professor of Oxford University, and a Jean Monnet Chair, which she was awarded twice by the European Commission in recognition of her research and teaching excellence. Before joining IGSD in 2022, Elena was Professor of International Politics and a founder of the Global Europe Centre (Professional Studies) at the University of Kent for ten years. Prior to that Elena worked as Senior Lecturer in International Politics, and Founder/Director of the Centre for European Studies at Aberystwyth University.

Professor Korosteleva is presently a Co-Investigator on the Horizon Europe project SHAPEDEM-EU 'Re-Shaping EU democracy support for the Eastern & Southern Neighbourhoods' (2022-25), and DFF AGMOW project 'Anticipating Governance in a Multi-Order World' (2023-26). She is also PI of the WUB-hub project (2023-24) and a co-founder of the Oxford Belarus Observatory (OBO) (2021-23), a higher-level online forum supported by OSF. Prior to that she was the Principal Investigator for the GCRF COMPASS (2017-22, £4mln) and GCRF COMPASS+ projects (2022-23) at Warwick focusing on nurturing resilience in Central Eurasia in the areas of research integration, impact governance, and sustainable communities. The COMPASS project was highly commended by the Times Higher Education in 2021, under the category of the Best International Collaboration of the Year.

Elena is a founder of the ECR Sustainability Training School at Warwick, a platform that brings together global Early Career Researchers for innovative training and networking-building opportunities at Warwick. The project has been supported by Research Culture Development Funds in 2022 and 2023.

Research Interests

  • Resilience, complexity, worlding and sustainable development
  • Concepts of governance and order in IR and Development studies
  • Europe as a global actor, in Development, Environment, Foreign Policy and Security
  • Pluralising and contextualising democracy
  • Relations with Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia

Elena has over 20 years of successful professional experience of researching the issues of global sustainable development, with a focus on Global Europe and Central Eurasia from a Complex IR and Development perspectives. She received her Doctoral Degree in European Studies & Modern Languages from the University of Bath (2001), and a PhD equivalent in Political Sociology from the Belarusian State University (1997). Thereafter she served as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, and Lecture/Senior Lecturer/Professor at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Kent. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford ; LSE IDEAS; European Institute for International Law & International Relations, and the College of Europe (Natolin). Elena served as member of the International Advisory Board for the GLOBSEC and Central European Strategy Council; Professorial Fellow of the Dahrendorf Forum at LSE IDEAS, and core group member, Munich Security Conference (2018). Elena works closely with the UK (Westminster, FCDO, British Council, WFD, HMG Embassies) and EU institutions (European Commission, External Action Service, European Parliament and regional EUDs), EU organisations (TEPSA, IRI, CEPS, EED, SIDA), and national governments in wider Eurasia. Elena is a regular media commentator for BBC, ITV, France24, Sky News and national news channels.